Hey guys, here we go with Chapter 3. Time for the results of the test, time to see who remains out of the 300 people chosen for this process. And then, on to the next challenge to become the Champion of Capella.
These intros are going to be relatively short until more characters start interacting which, trust me, is coming. So until then, let's get on with the story.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.
"Man that test was hard!" Ethan exclaimed, stretching his arms in the waiting area beneath the Coliseum seats. He was not the only one that thought so either. Plenty of other trainers murmured amongst themselves over the difficulty of the test, and how it became increasingly difficult as the questions went on. The girls nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, and did you hear how many times the Ninjask slashed exams down? I swear I felt one whizz past my head once," Brendan added in.
"I counted at least twenty, but I'm sure there were more," Alain threw in. "That test was more than just to challenge our intellect." A very serious look overcame his face.
"Oh yeah? How do you figure?" Brendan asked, Zinnia agreeing.
"Think about how much more difficult the test got as it went along. Some of those questions were asking about extremely complex scenarios that rarely ever happen in a real battle. Certain things that didn't even need to be taken into consideration due to the low likelihood of their occurrence."
"Now that I think about it, you're right," Misty added.
"I had to skip a few questions they were so hard," Dawn chimed in.
"What are you getting at, Alain?" Ethan asked.
"They wanted us to cheat and get caught doing it. That's got to be it. Because…"
"Because cheating is a sure-fire sign of a lack of both confidence and ability in a trainer." Alain was cut off by a young man, probably close to his age. He had spiky blonde hair and gold eyes, like none of them had ever seen before. The strangest thing about him, however, was his wardrobe. He sported a long, steel-blue, collarless coat with long sleeves that nearly covered his hands. His left arm seemed to have some sort of black armor with red outlines coursing all the way down his arm that created a concave bulge over his hand.
"If a trainer is willing to cheat," he continued, "then he isn't worthy of being called an elite."
"Who are you?" Alain asked.
Alain couldn't explain why, but this man's presence made his blood boil. Not out of anger, though. It was strange. A voice like Fate whispered to him as he stared into this man's golden eyes: "He will be your greatest opponent." He believed it, too, as his pulse began to race. This man in front of him was beaming with confidence, yet he did not come across as arrogant. Alain could feel it right down to his bones. This man was strong, and his Pokémon would be just as strong.
"Hey, wait a minute, I recognize you!" Ethan said, pointing his finger in the man's face. "You're that guy that made a scene when he turned in his exam. You were the first one to finish the test!" Ethan was right.
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About an hour into the exam, this man had finished. But instead of holding up his exam as they were instructed, he got up from his seat, walked down the steps and hopped up onto the edge of the seating. He then dove head first down a forty-foot drop to the arena floor below, garnering massive attention from the whole crowd, and the Champions that were proctoring the exam. He expertly performed a few somersaults and twists in the air as he descended before slamming the armored sleeve against the wall to slow his descent. To the audience, however, it didn't seem to work.
He crashed into the ground and kicked up a mighty cloud of dust that totally concealed him from sight. All eyes surveyed the cloud, attempting to pierce through it, most hoping for signs of life, some hoping for signs of injury. And as the dust settled, this young man was on his feet, totally unharmed, and smiling, just as he was now. He then approached the Champions with his exam in hand.
As he approached, Lance prepared to receive his exam, as well as reprimand him for disobeying the rules. The line of tension between the two of them was practically visible, growing in intensity as the young man drew closer, until at last they stood face to face. Lance was extremely displeased. Some would even venture to say he was pissed off.
"You were told to wait in the stands until your test was taken up from you."
"Yeah, I heard that. But, you see, waiting isn't really my thing. I'm more of a hard-charger, myself."
"An attitude like yours won't last long in my selection process, trainer."
"I think you'll change your mind once you watch me battle. Once you see me in action, you'll get it." He smoothly handed the test to Lance.
"And what is it that I'm supposed to 'get'?" Lance asked, anger apparent in his voice. "That you're a cocky, arrogant trainer who thinks he's the best, and so has no regard for the rules?"
"No. That I am the best. I won't lose a single battle in the time I am here. You can bet your life on that."
Lance continued to glare at him with his piercing stare that made nearly everyone in the audience shutter. But the young man before him was totally unfazed. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying antagonizing Lance and the spectacle he was making out of himself.
"A bold statement, boy," Lance growled, snatching the young man's exam from his hand. "But first you'll have to pass the test. Which Champion presented you with an invitation?"
Suddenly, the young man's smile curled into a fearsome scowl. He raised up his left hand and extended a finger from beneath the armor piece over his hand at Cynthia. He didn't say a word, only aimed his glare into her eyes. She seemed unintimidated by him, though. A Champion must be steady, and if Cynthia demonstrated nothing else about herself, it was that she was poised and steady. She stepped forward and received the exam gingerly from Lance. When her eyes went down to scan the answers on the papers in her hands, the young man's smile returned.
Cynthia's eyes grew wider and wider as she continued scanning through the test in her hands. It took her a grand total of five minutes to see that every single answer he had was correct. And not just correct, but thoroughly correct. This young man she had chosen out of Pyrite Town in Orre was a genius. The she lowered the test away from her face, but clutched it tightly in her hand as it came to rest by her side. She gave Lance a nod, which told him everything he needed to know.
"What is your name, trainer?" he demanded.
The young man simply returned Lance's gaze, but said nothing. A look of excitement crept up over his face, as if he knew something, something very important, that the Champions did not.
"Did you not hear me?! I asked you a question!"
"Zero." He looked down for a moment, solemnity overcame him. But when he looked back up into Lance's face, that same confident smile stretched over his face. "They call me Zero." And with that, he turned his back and walked away, leaving an extremely irate dragon master behind him.
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"That's right. Good memory."
"So what is your name, then?" Misty interjected.
"Zero."
"Your name is Zero?" Dawn asked.
"That's what they call me," he replied, throwing his hands behind his head.
"Well that's…interesting," Ethan replied. "So how did you finish first?"
"It just wasn't hard."
"Is that why you felt the need to showboat the way you did!?"
Another voice joined in the conversation. Ethan recognized him from before. It was that guy that gave him the stink eye when Dawn sat next to him and clutched at his arm. The guy with purple hair. His voice was very different than Zero's. It was stern, cold, and serious. If he were a Pokémon, he would be an ice/steel dual type, Brendan thought. Though this purple-haired guy did seem angry, it was controlled anger, not directed at Ethan, but at Zero.
Zero turned and faced this new face as calmly and cool as he had looked at Alain. The anger thrust at him didn't seem to faze him at all. He smiled, even, in the face of this adversary, as if he intended to antagonize him further.
"Without your little 'performance', I would have been the first one to finish. So don't get it in your head that you're better than me with your showboating!"
There was a brief pause. The group behind Zero froze in place, expecting a full on fight to break out between these two. The tension could be severed with a knife. Dawn inched her way over to Ethan and clutched at his arm as she had done before. It shocked him, but he was surprisingly okay with it. At least, until her nails started digging into his arm through his jacket.
"What's your name?" Zero asked.
"Paul Stone, from Veilstone City in Sinnoh. Who are you?"
"Call me Zero," he replied, still smiling.
Paul realized that nothing he said to Zero would breach that cocky wall of confidence surrounding him, and turned his back. Before walking away, he turned his head slightly over his right shoulder and said: "Before this is all over, you and I are going to battle. And I'm going to win."
"I'll be looking forward to it," Zero replied, tilting his head down, garnering a more serious smile as he watched Paul walk away.
Dawn exhaled as she watched Paul walk further and further away, gradually releasing her grip on Ethan's arm. A stinging sensation pulsed across his arm and up into his shoulder. He snatched his arm away from her, rubbing where he felt her nails dig. She didn't apologize, though. Her attention was in the direction Paul had walked off, everything else seemed blocked out. Ethan took notice, so he decided not to say anything. Instead he watched in silence like everyone else as the mysterious Paul walked off.
Finally, Zinnia broke the silence. "Dawn, you okay hun?"
Dawn hesitated for a moment. She had heard what Zinnia said, but she was still processing what just happened. He came over to face off with this guy Zero, but didn't say a word to her. She knew he saw her, he must have. But he didn't say anything. It was both relieving and infuriating. She just couldn't stand it!
"Yes," she answered, "I'm fine."
"Zinnia, who was that guy?" Brendan asked.
She returned him a smile, but only said "I'll have to tell you later. Dawn is going to need some time to diffuse."
"Okay. So they said after the exams they take us to our rooms, right?" Brendan asked.
"Unless you want to stick around to see the results of the test," Alain answered.
"Which is the only reason we're still here," Ethan added. "To make sure that we made the cut."
"Don't sweat it too much, guys," Zero began, "They call back the ones that made the cut from the resort tonight at midnight. If you didn't make the cut, you'll get a full night's sleep. If you did, morning's coming early, and I am getting some shuteye."
With that, Zero exited in the same way as Paul by the main entrance. The consensus was mutual: Zero had to be the strangest person any of them had ever met. But he sure did seem confident. Alain could only wonder why. He also wondered what it was about him that made his pulse race the way it did. Could he have the power…to surpass normal evolution?
Meanwhile, Bianca and Hilda were searching high and low for Serenity outside the coliseum. She was among the last to finish, and they hadn't seen her come out. As her self-declared big sisters, they were not about to leave for the resort without her.
"Serenity!" they called out.
"Are you sure she came out the South Gate, B?" Helen asked, scanning all around her.
"I thought that's how she came out, but I just don't know. Oww, I wish I would have just waited for her!"
They continued to look around the South entrance, hoping to find their new friend, when in reality, she was over at the East entrance looking for them. She had followed a larger group of people who finished roughly around the same time she had, expecting to see her new big sisters waiting outside, possibly waving. But when she stepped back out into the fading light, they were nowhere to be found. She tried not to worry, but there were so many people around, she thought she would never find them.
"Hilda?! Big sis?! Where are you guys?" she called out over and over.
Just a little way from her a man of decent proportions noticed her plight. He also noticed her gorgeous, petit figure; long wavy blonde hair; flawless skin and desperate tone. An intrigued smile curled his lips. With his right hand, he stroked the thick stubble that made up the bottom portion of his beard. After a moment of deliberating, he approached to see what was the matter.
"Excuse me, miss, are you lost?" he asked cordially as a snake.
"Yes, I'm trying to find my friends, but I don't know where they are or where they went."
Her voice was trembling. This was too perfect. She was too perfect. He gently set his mammoth hand on her tiny shoulder and said softly: "Hey, calm down. It's alright. You can come with me. I'll keep an eye on you."
"No, thank you," she began, attempting to step away from him, "I'll be alright from here."
"What's the rush, huh?" he tightened his grip on her shoulder.
"Please let me go," she pleaded.
"Come on, what do you say you stick with me, huh? And be my personal cheerleader while I win this thing? How does that sound?"
"Let go of me. I'm leaving!"
He gripped even harder, refusing to let her go. She struggled to pull away, but he slid his arm around her shoulder and coerced her to the inside of the East entryway. She was powerless to stop him. 'If my arm wasn't pinned against him, I could reach for my poke balls' she thought. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. Tears welled up in her eyes, but did not fall. He pushed her back against the wall. It was completely dark. Nobody could see them. Serena could hardly breathe.
"What do you say about giving me a kiss, huh sugar?"
He leaned in close, pressing his lips together and moving in towards her. She turned her face away and attempted to scream for help, but he threw his hand over her mouth and turned her head towards him. Those welled up tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn't believe what was happening, what was about to happen, and she couldn't stop him. She closed her eyes tightly as she felt his right hand touch her right leg and start moving up.
Suddenly, she felt all the pressure he was placing on her release all at once, as if someone had pulled him off her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that he had been pulled off of her and thrown to the ground. Another man was standing just steps from where this thug had held her in place. His coat blew heroically in the wind.
"You got some nerve, kid. Do you have any idea who I am?!"
Serena noticed he was wiping blood off his lip. Her rescuer must have punched him or kicked him or something. But he got up, towering over the man in front of him. Serena froze in terror, shrinking behind her rescuer. But he was unafraid. His fists hung steady at his sides. He was nowhere near the size of the hulking man before him, but here he was anyway, ready to fight, ready to get hurt fighting to protect someone he didn't even know.
"I'm gonna knock that smile right off your face," he growled as his gigantic hands balled into powerful-looking fists.
He pulled his arm back and fired a punch straight at the man in front of him. As quick as lightning, this mystery man evaded the punch, dropped onto all fours and fired a kick straight into the base of the thug's chin. The force of the kick launched him two feet into the air and several feet back. His head spun and his jaw ached. He attempted to get up, until another force struck his midsection, pushing any remaining air out of him.
"Now I don't want to have this conversation again," he began. "I don't ever want to see you putting your hands on any of the women here, understand? Because next time, I'll make it hurt."
He stomped his boot into his midsection again, forcing more air out and causing the thug a great amount of pain. Then he turned around and approached the still frightened Serena, who was huddled against the wall, frightened. Noticing this, he stopped, just outside the entryway. "Are you alright?" he asked. She didn't respond. He reached his hand out to her, and in this moment, she truly got a good look at the man who had just saved her.
He was certainly older than she was. She could see it in face. His eyes were golden in color, a shade she had never seen before. There was no malice, no anger, no wicked intent in them. They were soft, sincere. His hair was sandy blonde, and spiked up. He wasn't smiling, instead his face seemed concerned. Had he been worried about her? She was smart enough to conclude that he had seen what was happening between her and this thug, and stepped in to help. But he had no anterior motive. Though she didn't know him, she trusted him. Enough at least to stretch out her hand into the light and take his hand.
He took hold of her hand extremely lightly. From the moment their fingers touched, he could feel her hand trembling. He made sure not to close his grip, elsewise she would become even more frightened and retreat away from him. Slowly she emerged into the fading light of the sunset. Serena felt something course through her, something she had never felt before. This feeling, a mixture of gratitude and something else - something she didn't quite understand - compelled her to lunge forward and seize hold of the man that had just saved her.
"Thank you so much," she whimpered, releasing a few stray tears.
His arms did not wrap over or around her, not immediately. They remained arced outward and frozen in place. This was not the reaction he was expecting, but the softness in her grateful, teary voice and the warmth of her embrace won over, and he in turn wrapped her up in a hug, though not affectionately. He kept his head and face distant, looking about through the few people that remained for anybody that might be searching for her.
"What's your name?" he asked in a very low toned voice.
"Serena," she responded, just above a whisper.
"Come on, let's find your friends. I'm sure they're around here somewhere."
As the hug broke apart, they heard a sound in the distance, rising in volume. They turned towards the South and saw two figures running toward them at breakneck pace. Hilda and Bianca found Serena at last. Upon their arrival on the scene, they snatched her away from her rescuer and cradled her between the two of them. "We were so worried about you! We thought something might have happened!" Bianca exclaimed.
"Something did almost happen," the young man interjected. The three young ladies looked up at him, Hilda and Bianca suspecting him immediately, being the closest man to them at the moment. He motioned silently behind them with his head. They turned and saw the man on the ground, still clutching his chest from the pain of getting it stomped into twice. They clung tightly to Serena before releasing her to thank this stranger. But as they did, they saw he was already walking away.
"Wait!" Serena called out. Her voice stopped him in his tracks, but he did not turn around.
"What is your name?" she asked.
"Call me Zero."
With a flick of his wrist, he gave them a passing wave, and went on his way. Hilda and Bianca made their way towards the road just a ways out from the East entrance where a bus loaded up with the stragglers waited to take them to the resort a few miles away. They were silent, not knowing what to say. Hilda and Bianca were happy Serena was safe, but now knowing that something almost happened to her because they weren't there made them feel worse. Especially Hilda. But that thought hadn't even occurred to Serena. Her solitary thought was the name of the man who had saved her: 'His name is Zero,' she said to herself over and over in her mind.
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That's it for Chapter 3. Sorry this took so long, I hit a major writer's block last week, but I'm back now and ready to go. The characters have been introduced, the plot is moving. Stick with it, because we're about to get into some real juicy stuff in Chapter 4. Thanks for reading and remember, still accepting ideas for teams or individual Pokémon you would like to see!